Julia Mancuso of the USA was fastest in the downhill portion of the super combined. / Eric Bolte, USA TODAY Sports

by David Leon Moore, USA TODAY Sports

by David Leon Moore, USA TODAY Sports

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia - Julia Mancuso has been asked a lot of questions during her long skiing career, and a lot of them have been about her longtime teammate and rival Lindsey Vonn.

Vonn's historic career - she's second on the World Cup women's all-time victory list with 59, compared with Mancuso's seven - has overshadowed Mancuso's accomplishments.

But now it is Vonn, recovering from knee surgery and appearing on NBC's Today who finds herself talking about Mancuso.

And it is Mancuso who is leaving Vonn in the powder when it comes to Olympic medals.

Mancuso, who won a bronze medal Monday in the women's super-combined, now has twice as many Olympic medals as Vonn - four to two.

And with her blistering downhill run in the super-combined, Mancuso, 29, of Squaw Valley, Calif., stamped herself as a favorite in the women's downhill Wednesday. A medal in the downhill would give her five, tying her with Bode Miller atop the list of U.S. Olympic skiers.

"The Olympics is my redemption," Mancuso said.

And her ticket to history.

Only four female skiers have more Olympic medals than Mancuso: Croatia's Janica Kostelic and Sweden's Anja Paerson with six, and Switzerland's Vreni Schneider and Germany's Katja Seizinger with five.

She joins speedskaters Bonnie Blair and Apolo Ohno as the only American Winter Olympians to win individual medals in three Games.

"It's pretty cool," Mancuso said of her place in Olympic history. "Skiing and growing up with Lindsey - who's just amazing on the World Cup and breaking records left and right there - to have something that I can break records in at the same time is fun and exciting for me. It's a totally different thing, but these are great accomplishments that I'm really proud of. I feel like in our own ways we have such strengths, and it's cool to be a part of that."

Her medal performance Monday in an event that combines the times of one downhill run and one slalom run - particularly her superlative showing in the downhill - makes a fifth medal seem likely.

"I know I can really be fast in the downhill," she said. "I know how to be fast."

There were some doubts about that coming into the Olympics. She had a horrible start to the season and didn't crack the top 10 in a World Cup race until late January.

But she has been in similar funks heading into previous Olympics, and the five rings and the extra energy at the Games seems to energize her.

"I just know to never give up," she said. "That's a big part of it. The Olympics just causes me to bring that extra bit of intensity."

She has also lucked into good conditions for her in the last three Winter Olympics. The warm temperatures Sunday and Monday at the Rosa Khutor alpine center softened the snow and made it similar to the snow Mancuso grew up skiing in Squaw Valley, site of the 1960 Winter Games.

"For sure it helps that the last few Olympics have been places where it's warm," she said. "This is the kind of snow we get in California. In Torino, it was the snowstorms that we get (in Northern California). Now, it's that California sun that I'm feeling when I'm up on the hill."

Mancuso won a gold medal in the giant slalom during a snowfall in Torino in 2006. She added two silver medals - in downhill (second to Vonn) and super-combined - in Vancouver in 2010.

More warm weather is expected in the days ahead, which only adds to the speculation that Mancuso can grab another medal in the downhill and maybe even contend in the giant slalom.

No one questions her mental toughness - especially after the way she recovered from a wobbly start in her slalom run Monday and charged to the finish just fast enough to grab third place behind gold medalist Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany and silver medalist Nicole Hosp of Austria.

"It was a very strong performance in her mind," U.S. women's coach Alex Hoedlmoser said. "She set the tone and just decided to do it. She's a true champion, and that's why she can do these things. She gets so excited at the Olympics."

Said U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association CEO Bill Marolt: "She's a game-changer. I mean, she's a gamer."